FLOW, a 5-man J-rock band have been around since 1998. This group, made up of the two brothers KEIGO and KOHSHI on vocals, guitarist TAKE, bassist GOT’S, and the drummer IWASAKI, has done many works for anime such as the opening themes to shows like Naruto, Eureka Seven: Psalm of Planets, Code Geass, and Samurai Flamenco. If these are anime songs that have really rocked your world, you will want to check out the performance that FLOW will be putting on at Anime Fest, an anime convention in Dallas, TX. So if any of you are going to be in Dallas between August 15th – 18th in 2014, that’s a concert you can look forward to.

For those of you who might not recognize their name up front or might not be familiar with their works, here is a sampling of what they’ve done previously. They’re probably got their way into the anime fan’s consciousness back when they released the song “Go!!!” which was used as the opening theme to the Naruto anime. Take a look:

From there, they went to do a couple songs for the Eureka Seven franchise. “Days” was one of those songs that got really popular when the anime was airing and FLOW went on to do another opening theme titled “Bravelue” for Eureka Seven AO. Here’s their work “Days”:

But out of all the songs they’ve written for anime, perhaps none of them is more iconic than Code Geass’s “Colors”. There’s something about that iconic JIBUNN WOOO opening lyric that really resonates with people and made the whole Code Geass experience that much more memorable. Definitely a song that most people are likely to be familiar with. After all, that energy is really infectious and one that stands tall in terms of what people are likely to remember from the show:

So with all the songs they’ve done, past and present, their concert appearance at Anime Fest should prove to be an entertaining one.

It looks like Singapore won’t be the only place to receive an anime piano concert. Looks like the next stop for Youtube anime pianist TehIshter will be Los Angeles!

Back in 2013, TehIshter teamed up with longtime anime piano arranger AnimeNZ to perform a concert called Attack on Piano, held all the way out in Singapore. The concert brought in a lot of anime fans and was generally regarded to be a big success. Although our staffer wasn’t able to confirm that this would be anything more than a one-shot deal, TehIshter posted on his Facebook page on January 3rd confirming that there would be more concerts down the line and that the first one will take place in Los Angeles where TehIshter started playing the piano.

As of now, there’s little information about venue, time, or even ticketing information. The only information we have is that the concert will be held sometime in the spring of 2014. So with that, we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears out for further announcements and will keep you all updated!

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Otakon, the annual anime convention held in Baltimore near the tail end of summer, has hit its 20th year milestone and is celebrating that in style! This year’s production has already featured some big names like TM Revolution, the singer who paired up with Nana Mizuki to perform Valvrave the Liberator’s “Preserved Roses” opening theme! But arguably the most sought-after performance will be none other than the Otakon Sunday concert which will feature Yoko Kanno and Chiaki Ishikawa!

Right now, it’s really hard to tell what will go down. According to the site, it says that Yoko Kanno will be performing something called “Piano Me” which will consist of Kanno on solo piano. But beyond that, the details are sparse. As most anime fans know, Yoko Kanno is responsible for composing music to anime writing the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack as well as, more recently, the soundtrack for Sakamichi no Apollon, better known as Kids on the Slope in the West.

Chiaki Ishikawa will also get a chance to showcase her skills as she opens up the concert. For those not aware, Chiaki Ishikawa performed the evergreen opening song to Bokurano, titled “Uninstall” as well as the ending theme to Majestic Prince, through a song titled “Sayonara Tteiu”. In the past, she’s also worked as a part of See-Saw on the .hack franchise.

Given all that’s out there, I’d say that this year’s Otakon experience beats out the Anime Expo experience by a stretch, as fun as the latter was. Because of that, we’ll look forward to seeing how things go down and the impressions thereof!

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If you were at Anime Expo and can’t seem to get enough of Yuki Kajiura’s concert presence, August 31 should give you an opportunity to catch her in person. On August 31, at 7pm Japan time, Yuki Kajiura will be set to perform live. While this might normally not be worth mentioning because it will take place in Japan, the promising news is that people living outside Japan have the opportunity to view it as it’s streaming live!

To watch Yuki Kajiura live, head over to the concert event’s Ustream page. Information on ticketing can also be found on Ustream. Do keep in mind that tickets will cost 1,000 yen and you have to have a Ustream account or log in through Facebook. Thankfully, this is not region-locked and if you have purchased your Ustream ticket, you get the bonus of being able to view archived footage of the event. So set your clocks, purchase those tickets, and look forward to another magical, musical evening with Kajiura.

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Nagi Yanagi has been recently announced as a guest at Singapore’s A Certain Magical Event (abbreviated A.C.M.E.). This will be A.C.M.E.’s fourth iteration and will be held this coming weekend, August 25, 2012 at the Singapore Expo, Garnet Room. The announcement of Nagi Yanagi has come more or less at the last minute, but needless to say, there’s much excitement to be had.

Nagi Yanagi has gotten her start as a singer for doujin music, but her biggest splash came as a result of Bakemonogatari’s ending theme, “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari,” where she partnered alongside supercell composer, Ryo. Her other works include songs like “Hero” and “Sayonara Memories,” both of which have been very popular. After leaving supercell, she’s gone on to sing songs for anime like Ano Natsu de Matteru and Jormungand.

In any case, she will be performing a live concert at the convention. For people looking for more information, check out A.C.M.E.’s Facebook page for more details and further announcements.

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2011’s anime music offered a lot of interesting melodies with composers like Hiroyuki Sawano and Yoshihisa Hirano topping the charts with anime like Guilty Crown, Ao no Exorcist, and Hunter x Hunter. If you’re looking to see what managed to top our list of the best 15 anime soundtracks from 2011, check our anime music retrospective post, complete with plenty of samples for you to listen to so that you can figure out whether this is right up your alley.

In addition to that, we had a post recently by Arthur, who attended a Chiaki Ishikawa concert where she sang a lot of the music from when she was in the anime music group See-Saw. No Chiaki Ishikawa concert would be complete without Bokurano’s OP theme, “Uninstall” however, and they did give that song an airing. So if you’re interested in his thoughts on Chiaki Ishikawa’s concert as well as a concert where he got to see famed composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, head over and give his post a read.

Sphere, the J-pop idol group made up of seiyuu/singers Haruka Tomatsu, Minako Kotobuki, Ayahi Takagaki, and Aki Toyosaki, will be one of the prominent guests who will make their appearance at Anime Festival Asia held in Singapore towards the middle of November.

Sphere will be joining some other big names at Anime Festival Asia this year, so stay tuned for a more detailed listing of all the other anime music artists who will be performing a concert along with them at the convention. The only note is that no concert dates have been set thus far, so details will be forthcoming.

Yuuka Nanri is particularly well-known for her voice roles on quite a few anime, ranging from Henrietta in the critically-acclaimed Gunslinger Girl, Saori Chiba in Hourou Musuko, and more recently, Ritsuko Mukae in Sakamichi no Apollon where she also gave her own rendition of “My Favorite Things.” In addition to her job as a voice actress, Yuuka Nanri has also worked with Yuki Kajiura, performing such works as “Akatsuki no Kuruma,” the opening to Gundam SEED as part of Yuki Kajiura’s FictionJunction unit. Lately, she’s also embarked as a solo artist, and has sung songs like “Shizuku,” the theme song to .hack//QUANTUM.

Otakon 2012 will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland from July 27 – July 29 for those who want to see her at the convention.

The Macross franchise, so well known for combining mecha, music, and romance into compelling anime, will be celebrating its 30-year anniversary with a live, on-stage musical. Titled Macross the Musicalture, the performance dates for this musical will run from October 3 to October 10 at the Tokyo Dome City Hall with tickets priced at 6800 yen.

Currently there have been some details as to what the musical will focus upon as well as a preliminary character and staff list released which features Takuya Kikuchi as Vigo Walgria and Tsuchiya Zion as Ash Anderson, the Macross Musical’s male characters. Female characters will include Sakura Crawford, played by Kana Megumi, and Daryl Walgria, played by Risa Uesugi.

Macross the Musicalture is probably a long time coming given that a major component for the Macross franchise is its music, with the most recent entry, Macross Frontier, getting strong reviews for its soundtrack. Whether the music will shine remains to be seen, but here’s hoping for a strong showing!

That said, the only hiccup in the entire concert is the fact that the venue churned out sound issues like reverb and the instrumental balance was out of whack, which intruded upon the audience’s ability to hear FictionJunction and LiSA sing their songs. Despite these issues, it was a memorable night and one definitely worth experiencing. Do check out the concert reports we have posted!